Category: Harvard History

For over a year now, we been searching for some sort of logo for the Foundation. We’ve thought of many different options, only to discard them one by one: too impractical, too difficult to reproduce, to expensive to commission… etc. etc. Then, the other day, I came across a mention of  a Roosevelt family crest, [...]

How’s this for an elliptical tale: I was sitting last evening in FDR Suite, attending a small get-together hosted by Claire Mays, ‘81, who’s our first guest since the Suite was sufficiently completed to lose its air of camping. There were nine of us, and we were sitting around in an odd allotment of chairs [...]

Who said you couldn’t put Humpty-Dumpty back together again? Several day’s worth  of hard work later, the Suite has emerged with its new coat of paper, remarkably transformed, looking for the first time in over a century very nearly like a Victorian room:

What’s next? Window treatments, and – hopefully – more generous contributions from [...]

An epic campaign ended today as the first rolls of  historic wallpaper were applied to the walls of the FDR Suite study. You may remember all the trials and tribulations we had in piecing together the pattern from fragments I discovered last summer behind the large radiator. Then Kari Pei, Head of Design at Wolf-Gordon [...]

Dearest Mama,
I have jumped into a den of wild animals on my return, beginning with a dinner at the Club last Saturday, two private performances of the Pudding show & a crowd of 1903 men here for Herbert Burgess’ ushers’ dinner… FDR to Sara, May 3rd, 1904:
Just so that you don’t think we’re concentrating on [...]

Though here at the Restoration we’re usually too covered in archival dust to pay much attention to current events, we noticed an article in today’s New York Times that might interest our readers:
While we can’t comment on the economic validity of these arguments, we can certainly assert that a thorough understanding of FDR’s life and [...]

I was sitting in the Suite a few weeks ago, looking around, and I must admit to being quite impressed. With furniture mostly in place, pictures on the walls, mementos scattered everywhere, the place is really starting to become a real Victorian room with personality. This last is truly the key, because our quest is [...]

Those of us fond of history (and I included myself in this group) often have a tendency to romanticize the past, or at least think that life today presents a certain level of crudity and barbarism lacking in more cultured times. Every now and then however, I am reminded that things weren’t always how I [...]

It seems like ages, but here, at last, are some of the first views, post renovations. The walls are still bare, and the furniture a bit sparse, but we’re getting there!
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A thousand thanks to all of you who have helped us move this project forward! Special kudos to our alumni donors  and project supporters (you [...]

We at the Foundation are happy to relate that Mr. Curtis Roosevelt has landed in Boston, via an 18 hour trip from Western MA through 1.5 feet of snow!
No matter. The Roosevelt stamina lives on. Here’s Mr. C. R, 1/2 hour off the gate, and thrust into a studio at WGBH’s Greater Boston.

Talk about game! [...]